Yes, I get what you're saying Zohar. But I find that the thoughts that it generates, and conversations it stimulates between my partner and I, aren't really about technology being bad. They're questions about society in general, or ethics, or philosophy... because all of it comes down to people's cr...

Thanks Moo - your words help so much! Sungura, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience - that sounds absolutely horrifying. I just don't get the American health system, either... I mean, I'm not sure ours (NZ) is any better, it's regularly described as being "the ambulance at the bottom of a...

My own rant about gynecological screenings--this one, mammograms: My primary care doctor retired, and the new one strongly recommended that I have a mammogram. It had been four years since my last one. I told her that every time I've had a mammogram in the past, the pain has been almost unbeara...

Thanks everyone. I think I might contact the clinic. The bit that's frustrating is that I'm sure I could have focused on relaxing my muscles if given time, but was in too much pain to stay calm and do so as she kept pushing causing more pain, which made me more anxious/upset. You know, if I ask my p...

Pap smears... are they supposed to hurt? I went for one today, for the first time in about 8 years. Meant to have them once about every 3 years, but I'd been really slack with booking one in. Anyway, so nurse says "shouldn't hurt, will only be a bit uncomfortable". She then proceeded to lu...

Hi Hekateras! It feels quiet, that's for sure! I still read, every now and then, but sometimes the gaps have been 8 months or so. It makes me sad because the fora, but the women's thread especially, was a defining part of my growing up... going from shy and sheltered into the world of the internets ...

Whereabouts are you bachaddict? Finally motivated hubby and I to get our civil defence kit back together, since progressively raiding the previous one for camping gear, plasters, and muesli bars and then moving flats and having bits of things all over the place. It's still short on a few essentials ...

I'm that sorry "wooo! drugs!" was about all the advice I had. :-/ That and to just keep trying with the management options you've probably already got in place, like making sure you're eating well, sleeping well, and getting plenty of water and not too much caffeine around that time. You'l...

TW: depression/suicide Every time I get Shark Week, my depression shoots into overdrive. It's driving me crazy. I go from being generally unsatisfied with life to freaking hating everything and not wanting to live anymore. I don't think it's PMDD though because I don't have any phys...

Minor rant, but... if something is going to be a large and important part of my work, with others relying on the results... why have you left me with an unlicensed version of the required software that crashes every hour?! Waste of my fucking time closing it all down and re-loading the files etc. et...

Shit... I just had the thought.... Vampire Sharks. Eeeee... I had to google them just to make sure there's no such thing.Though in the water I don't see how they'd be worse than any other shark encounter. But flying into your bedroom at night complete with black cape something like this: http://xkc...

Little anecdote I thought some of you may enjoy: My niece, now 9, and I were both staying at my mother's the other night and sharing a double-bed. If her height's anything to go by she's rapidly approaching puberty already, and I remember as a kid always being a bit embarrassed to ask questions no m...

People who put ketchup on fries are clearly just people who have not yet experienced the superior combination of fries with mayonnaise. Clearly. Ugh, these very words could have come from my partner's mouth. He insists that tomato sauce is "too sugary", and he DOES have a point there. But...

Wow. I was just coming to have a minor whinge about how I'm going about my day smelling like a ball of gross mustiness, after my partner's father shoved my clothes off the line and into a pile while they were far from dry. There are bigger issues right? Eran, I'm so sorry to hear what you're going t...

It's a very cute dis indeed! I've barely been on the fora lately, but I came on special (albeit a bit late...) just to see how things went - so glad to see you all looking well and such adorable pics. Huge congratulations to you both! Actually make that to all three, being born doesn't sound easy ei...

Things that are terrible: Being 9 months pregnant and having a yeast infection. That really doesn't need the "9 months pregnant" to already be absolutely freaking terrible...! But wow, 9 months? When are/were you due? It somehow feels like forever ago that I noticed something on the fora ...

Dear Dell technical support: My laptop arrived with internet that sporadically craps out and a screen that flashes pink every time it's not in it's little perfect spot. That sucked, but the first guy I talked to on the phone was really helpful, and sounded like they'd send round a technician really ...

Sorry, just had to get this out of my system. http://i.imgur.com/Qnder7K.png What the fuck do you want people to do? A friend just left London early today after being whispered death threats on bus... Just because he looked kinda somewhat middle eastern. (He's from India.) Dammit, world. Yeh. The g...

Somewhat related: There's a sports/outdoorsish store in downtown Seattle, and they have a huge screen showing happy people using their stuff. A few years ago I probably would have thought "Wow, this is a dumb commercial", but now I just think "Wow, this commercial has a ton of white ...

A vent. Dear Women's Thread, I'm not very good at getting dressed in the mornings, I'm always sleepy and running really late and grab the nearest thing I can find. This morning the only clean and dry top I could find for the life of me is, in retrospect, probably too low cut for the work...

People who are giving up caffeine! I want to join that group. I've drunken caffeine in various forms since I was about 16 or so (so, for about a decade). It began as instant coffee with milk and sugar, moved to instant coffee without milk or sugar, progressed up to plunger coffee, and now has moved ...

I don't see the problem with being the main (even only?) source of information for the child, so long as (a) I were teaching them my native language (english) as well, and (b) I never put the importance of speaking in the second language above the importance of providing thorough and accurate inform...

Bedtime stories and normal conversation will be your future kid's main source of information. I don't know what you mean by a "language DVD", but I doubt any toddler will be much interested in studying conjugation rules or literature... :| Yeh, it being their main source of information is...

This is something I'd like to do too, should I ever procreate. It just seems such a waste to take the time to learn the languages myself and then not to pass the knowledge on, especially when they're young and soaking up language. I was thinking of having separate days or something? And backing up t...

Hi all, So I never really got this going last time around, but a few things in my life lately have really made me feel it'd be a good idea. But, it was hard to come up with 52 different things so there could be one goal each week, and also meant the goals seemed very specific, and not everyone would...

Totally different topic/rant but am I weird in not liking these "real women" campaigns? Real women this, real women that. I always want to scream "real women are all different! IDIOTS!". DEFINITELY agree with you - you're not weird at all in hating them! I think a lot of it has ...

Awesome Ashlah! :D And happy international women's day (just a few days late) to you too Natashatasha and all the rest of the thread! I haven't had anything womanly to share lately so haven't been posting much... but I saw a couple of Orcas the other day, up REALLY close, and while not woman-thready...

I was disgusted to discover that Judge Adams has been reinstated and is back on the bench. A gross miscarriage of justice if I've ever seen one... WTF?! Damn this makes me angry. I agree with CorruptUser that offenders should be re-integrated into society, but I don't think that that re-integration...

Do people who live in snowless regions celebrate Christmas with decorated trees? New Zealand here - yup we do, but then we're a recent British colony. Some people use plastic trees (in fact I think this is most common from what I've seen in friend's houses?), others use cut pine trees. My own famil...

On Facebook, when I go to "About" and edit my "Basic Info" "I am" "Select Sex," which means no sex. Also, I have the "show my sex on my timeline" no checked, so you can both not show it and not have it. Probably cause I'd at some stage clicked on on...

My sis just shared this in fb, and I thought I'd share it here: http://offbeatmama.com/2012/11/telling-daughters-im-beautiful Just a little blog post, but it makes a very good point, and one I hadn't thought about. I'd thought about the importance of encouraging children to re-think the meaning of '...

Two years ago today I was something of a wreck, having just left my abusive (now ex-) husband. Today: Krav Maga, a corresponding increase in self-confidence, a distinct lack of terrible relationships, and cherry chocolate fudge. Jean-Luc-Picard-Full-of-win.jpg :D That is awesome! And cherry chocola...

I'll put in another vote for Robin. I really like that name for some reason. I've seen a difference in spelling sometimes ('Robyn' for a woman) but it doesn't seem like one that needs to be adhered to. I turned to google to see some lists of gender-neutral names and it seems to think that 'Sage' is ...

DaBigCheez, this probably sounds slightly creepy, but You look super-hot post-haircut :oops: Not sure why exactly it seems so different, perhaps you have a very shapely head... or perhaps it's just the loss of the black hair-cutting cape?! Also, I fully wanna shave my head one day, but I'm not b...